Willfully Unashamed

Mark 8:38
    “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” NKJV

    Like many other times, Jesus tells us that what we do with His name here on Earth, He will do to us during judgment. This time he talks about being ashamed. To me, this verse appears to be anti-parallel to “Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.” (Luke 12:8)
    At first it is hard for me to remember a time that I’ve been ashamed of Jesus. But I remember a time when I failed to confess Christ.
    I wasn’t asked directly or anything but I sat at a table whose conversation strayed to the racism against gays and how persecuted they had been because of republicans and whatnot.
    I wanted to add that the bible says it is a sin, but was afraid to because I was obviously the only Christian there and one of them was actually gay himself. How do you tell someone they are committing sin by the very nature they identify themselves?
    That would have been like someone walking up to me and telling me I’m in sin because I call myself a writer. Even though there is truth to that, I would not have taken it well.

    I’m actually glad that I didn’t speak up just then because my opinion on that subject has since changed, as well as my opinions on how to approach it, so what I had to say probably wouldn’t have cast Jesus in a good light. My point, however, is that I wasn’t willing to confess Christ in that situation. I was ashamed. I need to be willing in all situations to confess Christ if He calls me to do so, especially if I’m the only Christian there.